The Frasers must come to terms with all that has changed in the aftermath of the Battle of Alamance Creek. Brianna tries to help Roger overcome the trauma he has endured. An unexpected visitor arrives at the Ridge.
Oxford University 1969
Roger is teaching his class, handing back his students papers. Brianna comes in and listens as he teaches. He is trying to get his students to think about a person’s word. He wants his students to think about their last words and how words have an impact.
Brianna is there to meet him for a silent movie which she isn’t particularly interested in but he sat through a lecture on suspension bridges for her. Fair is fair.
Alamance Creek 1771
In silent movie style, Jamie, Claire, Brianna and some of the Fraser Company find Roger hanging from a tree. Jamie orders them to cut him down but when he brings Roger down; Jamie realizes Roger is still breathing. Claire quickly goes to work on him trying to open his airway with a tractotomy. Brianna and Jamie are trying to reassure him as he lies on the ground.
Three Months Later
Roger is at the cabin remembering his hanging. He is clearly traumatized. Claire is checking him and telling him everything looks good and has healed well. She wants him to speak even though it will be croaky at first. Brianna encourages him and tells him by saying she’ll teach him the American “sweater” and “aluminum” rather than “jumper” and the British version of “aluminum”. She gives up and tells him it will be like a silent movie they used to go see.
Claire tries to tempt him up to the house where Lord John is visiting with gifts but Roger would rather stay put. Roger is stuck in his memories reliving his hanging and the events leading up to it. Buck seems to have pretended to be part of Fraser’s Company and said Roger was a Regulator prisoner who as placed with the others. Tryon told them other officers to pick three and hang them as an example. Roger happened to be one of them.
At the Big House, Brianna is telling Claire about Gayle’s boyfriend who was shell shocked after being in Vietnam. Roger is the same but he’s drowning in silence.
Jocasta sings at Murtagh’s grave. On the porch, Jocasta says she wanted to make him a headstone but she wasn’t his wife and Jamie says Murtagh wasn’t his father but the pain isn’t any less. They reminisce about his stubbornness and his loyalty. Jamie says his goodbyes and Jocasta reminds him goodbyes could be the last. The two hug and Jamie sit on the stares with tears as he looks a Murtagh’s plaid and pin.
Inside, Jamie reads a letter from Tryon about Roger’s hanging. He’s offered Roger 5000 acres as recompense. Brianna isn’t interested; she only wants Roger.
At the cabin, Roger is going over plans for a loft in the cabin but the tool bag reminds him of the bag over his head before the hanging. He remembers seeing the British officers and removing his hand from its binding to grab the rope around his neck. It plays over and over in his head.
Lord John finds Brianna on the porch and brings her an astrolabe which always made him feel like he had the wisdom of the heavens. Brianna tells the time with it and says it is 5:30pm but John says it is 5:35pm. He tells her sometimes we must have patience and she thanks him.
Later that night, Jamie find Claire in the kitchen. He’s drunk. Jamie wonders if there is a cure for grief and Claire tells him time. Time heals all wounds.
In the morning, the women of the Ridge are washing clothes, making candles, and other household chores. Claire and Jamie go to the cabin where Roger is working on the stairs for the loft but Jamie would like him to stop as he has a hangover. They come bearing leftovers.
Jem is pounding on things with a stick which Jamie’s not keen on either. The tea kettle whistles and Jem reaches for it. He’s about to burn himself when Roger croaks a strangled “stop,” scaring Jemmy. Jamie and Claire take Jem outside while Brianna deals with Roger who is upset at his voice. Brianna asks him to try but he walks away.
Roger returns to his work while Brianna sings to Jem. Roger listens and seems to get more and more upset that he cannot sing. It brings him to tears.
Jamie and Claire are playing with Jem outside when Jamie hears a noise in the bushes. A large pig rushes Jamie who is poised to stab it when an arrow fells the beast. Jamie looks up to the hillside where he sees what he thinks is a Mohawk. Then Rollo comes bounding over the ridge and Young Ian appears.
Jamie hugs Young Ian but quickly realizes there is something very different about Young Ian. They go to the cabin where Roger and Brianna come out to see Ian. Roger goes out and hugs Ian, clearly a thank you for taking his place with the Mohawk. Roger can’t say anything and returns inside. Brianna welcomes Ian with a hug.
Claire and Jamie show Young Ian the Big House. He seems taken aback and wants to remain outside. He also plans to butcher the pig though Jamie offers to have someone else do it but Young Ian quietly says it is his kill.
In the cabin, Marsali is trying to entertain Roger with tarot cards and reads her own fortune. She has to wonder how many bairns is too many… Fergus. She does Roger’s fortune and comes up with the hangman twice. Roger gets upset and swipes her cards on the floor. Meanwhile, Roger is remembering again.
Brianna comes in to Marsali picking them up and inquires after them. Marsali says it is harmless fun. Brianna tries to coax him to speak. She tells him he’s the man she married still and he must try. When he doesn’t respond she tells him when she was raped she didn’t crawl away and die because she has a husband and son who need her. They need him and she needs him to fight. Roger cries. She needs to know if he’ll come back to them.
At dinner, Lizzie tells Young Ian she made one of his favorites. Jamie prays and Ian watches on. Fergus and Marsali want every detail of his life with the Mohawk. He gives them nothing. Ian is a man of few words and only says the Mohawk were good people. Claire asks if he’s going to go back and Ian says no.
Jamie moves on to the land grant and he wants it surveyed. Jamie thinks Young Ian should go with Roger to help as he helped with their land. Young Ian doesn’t commit and Claire tells Jamie to let him think about it. Their guest room isn’t ready so he can take the bed in the kitchen.
At the cabin, roger is playing guitar but stops as the memories of his hanging come back to him.
At the Big House, Young Ian looks at the bed in sadness.
The next morning, Jamie finds Young Ian sleeping on the floor outside. Jamie comments about Young Ian seeming out of sorts. He sits with him and asks what happened. Ian says he doesn’t have the words. Ian tells Jamie he knows Claire and he keep things hidden from others.
Young Ian is on the porch stairs when Germain comes up to him and asks about his face tattoos thinking they are bruises. Marsali comes to get him and comments on how overwhelmed she feels though she loves it. She is happy her children have brothers and sister like Young Ian did. She tells him she misses her mom and sister but sometimes she feels so guilty about being so happy in the family on the Ridge. She tells Ian she’s happy he’s there to welcome her bairn on the way.
Roger and Brianna are in the cabin. Roger is packing to go surveying while Brianna folds a piece of paper into a plane saying sometimes we must bend and reshape ourselves. She tells him there is a reason the first anniversary gift is paper and the 60th is a diamond and she wants their marriage to grow into something that strong. She tosses the paper airplane to him and tells him she loves him. Roger picks up the plane and puts it in his satchel.
Ian and Roger are surveying. Ian calls out numbers but it seems the two need little words. Roger lets Ian see the astrolabe and Ian asks if Roger trusts him not to break it. Roger touches Ian bracelet clearly asking about it but Ian covers it with his sleeve.
At the Big House, Claire calls to Marsali and asks about the water hemlock, whether she’s prescribed it. She says she wouldn’t touch it being with child. Claire thought as much but they both thought there was more left.
Out surveying, Roger and Ian are sitting under a tree and Roger has the paper airplane. Ian asks what it is and thinks it a paper bird. Roger throws it and Ian says it flies but doesn’t sing. When he couldn’t understand the Mohawk he’d talk to the birds.
Roger is dreaming of his hanging and wakes in camp. Ian asks after the dreaming. Ian uses the astrolabe and tells Roger no matter where he thought he was they are both still there.
At the Big House, Jamie and Claire are in bed. Claire is petting Adso while Jamie reads. Claire asks if Roger wouldn’t want to come home. She reminds Jamie there was a time he didn’t want to live (after Wentworth). She mentions the missing hemlock.
Ian and Roger come to a cliff. Roger looks over considering the end and replaying his hanging but this time color comes back and Brianna’s face is the last thing that came to mind before he lost consciousness. Roger realizes he doesn’t want to die and flies the paper airplane off the cliff before stepping back.
The next morning, Roger wakes to Rollo whining. Ian has tied him to the ground to prevent him following him.
Ian is burying his hatchet in the ground (laying down his weapon). He gives a Mohawk prayer before going to the fire and putting the hemlock into the pot. Roger comes up and kicks it away and Ian pushes him down asking why he’d stop him.
Ian saw Roger at the cliff and knows what he was thinking. Roger has a wife and a child and he still didn’t want to live. Ian wants to know what he saw in the darkness when he was hanged. Roger tells him he saw Brianna’s face. Ian thinks there is no escape, he sees her face.
Roger asks her name but Ian says it doesn’t matter. Roger wants to know if she’s dead. Ian says she not but she lost to him. He wanted the pain to end. Roger tells him he doesn’t know where his soul will go. He could be parted from all his loved ones forever.
Ian tells him he laid down his weapon, his voice. Roger agrees and says he’ll have to pick it up again and Ian should pick up his and come home with him until he knows if he can fight.
The two ride into the yard and Roger goes to Brianna at the cabin. Roger says her name and when she says nothing he says, ‘don’t tell me you’re at a loss for words now.’
Roger tells her part of him died that day. She understands. He tells her the old Roger died. He’s living history. His own ancestor tried to kill him. He’s changed. He thought he’d know what his last words would be but what was important was the last face he’d see. He saw her face.
He’ll always sing for her even if she’s not there or he’s unable.
